Hascon 2017: The Bumblebee Movie Tidbits

Transformers Live Action Movie Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was at Hascon 2017 Dinner to talk a bit about the movie aspect of the franchise. While he was there, he discussed about the upcoming Transformers Universe: Bumblebee movie. Nothing major was revealed. Most of the info are already known, but we thought to inform the fans.

Highlights:

Bumblebee Movie is set in 1986 with all the “weird” hair and music and everything.

It’ll be a very emotional movie, feeling similar to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial by Steven Spielberg (who is also a producer of the Transformers Franchise).

Bumblebee will have a special bond with Hailee Steinfeld’s character.

Travis Knight (award winning Kubo and the Two Strings, Coraline, and ParaNorman) will be directing and it’ll be on a different direction than Michael Bay movies.

The movie will be kept simpler and will feel a lot like the first Transformers Live Action Movie.

In future, they believe they could [no promises] do more movies for other characters, set in different time periods.

The team also joked about several possibilities for Transformers 6. Some of the jokes included making a Time Travel movie and Transformers as babies.

I think superficial pandering to the nostalgic (like, making Bumblebee a G1-like VW beetle in an otherwise Bayverse mοvie) is nothing but a cheap trick. Nostalgic references should (and would) be a by-product of genuine understanding of what made the original connect with its audience, not an end in itself. The looks are nothing but an extension of the spirit of a piece of work, the mentality behind it, that made it succeed. Superficial understanding leads to arbitrary changes. That's a general rule of thumb, not just a Transformers or a Hollywood thing.

The problem is nostalgia is such a strong selling point for movies and TV that you have to wonder when someone at Paramount would say hey those other guys are making a lot more money than we are by cashing in on nostalgia. Beauty and the Beast climbed to the top of the domestic box office by cashing in on that nostalgia people had for the animated movie. Universal made a lot more money cashing in on the Jurassic Park nostalgia in Jurassic World than when Universal ditched nostalgia on The Mummy to do something different.

I can't disagree with that, even though that's not what I look for in movies. Nostalgia is indeed a big motivator for many people when it comes to entertainment, even if isn't really for me.

I'm perfectly okay with that, too, because there will still be movies that come out that I'll enjoy, so if I'm happy with some movies and others happy with nostalgic movies, then it's all good. Plus, the movies I really enjoy I'll own on DVD.

You know, as someone who really does want to see this film I actually agree with this sentiment. I want Transformers films that are interesting in their own right, not using 1984, 1986, or 2007 nostalgia to get butts in seats, which would be one of my biggest concerns for this movie. And yeah, Transformers 5 would have been much better had it not shoehorned a bunch of first trilogy characters that didn't need to be there.

The problem is nostalgia is such a strong selling point for movies and TV that you have to wonder when someone at Paramount would say hey those other guys are making a lot more money than we are by cashing in on nostalgia. Beauty and the Beast climbed to the top of the domestic box office by cashing in on that nostalgia people had for the animated movie. Universal made a lot more money cashing in on the Jurassic Park nostalgia in Jurassic World than when Universal ditched nostalgia on The Mummy to do something different.

Yawn. I'm not getting any hopes up. Appealing as it sounds having a period film, this is more Hollywood doubling down on nostalgia like The Farce Awakens by leveraging us 80s kids. Nostalgia is comforting, not thrilling. TLK tried nostalgia with call backs to the 07 film and failed at it.

Bruce Brazzos points for trying though.

You know, as someone who really does want to see this film I actually agree with this sentiment. I want Transformers films that are interesting in their own right, not using 1984, 1986, or 2007 nostalgia to get butts in seats, which would be one of my biggest concerns for this movie. And yeah, Transformers 5 would have been much better had it not shoehorned a bunch of first trilogy characters that didn't need to be there.

is this the "Do I feel lucky" moment for you? are you a big clint eastwood fan?

i have broken no rules, so i'd like to re-assert that.

when someone deletes things or threatens to delete things, when no rules are broken, there is clearly a bias present in favour of the angle being criticized.

or when posts are reported for a user saying "wow this *intangible idea* is dumb" or "this *company* is doing dumb things" and another user on the board says "i feel insulted by what you are saying about the *intangible ideas* that this *company* sells that make billions of dollars" then it seems to be a logical conclusion that the board has a favoured bias, when the initial user is treated like a pariah and threatened

as for "thinking before posting", this could be an idea for those who support trash heap media. if good defending points were presented rather than baseless subjective over-sensitive personal replies, these posts would never get to a level requiring the Level Boss to show up, it would simply be a collection of positive objective points, negative objective points, and possibly some comedy in between to lighten the mood and make it an interesting discussion.

if the only posts allowed on this board about the new movie are "i likey like things, you likey like what i likey like too, right?" then i suggest a new rule be added, so i can be in accordance with it. "Rule B8: Do not explain why you dislike anything in a comprehensive way"

Regardless what happens to me or this thread, myself and many others gain the knowledge and confirmation that this site appears to be a propaganda house for Hasbro to press out its news and hype, and any dissenting opinions will be silenced or turned into discussions of a personal nature, and then blamed on the people they want gotten rid of

You know, posts like this are tough. If I delete it, you and whomever has deluded themselves enough to believe what you say will only see it as "proof" that you were right.

If I leave it, it looks like I'm not deleting it because I don't want to implicate TFW.

If we were a "propaganda house for Hasbro", do you really think you'd see third party products front paged? Or negative reviews of their figures floating around? Or anything negative, at all, really? Maybe think a bit before you spout absurd rhetoric like this.

I would realy like to see the spin offs for individual characters to have their own movies. It\'s an interesting dynamic that even the transformers cartoons are barely experimenting with. It would be a good way to develop the transformers better and build publicity and popularity to characters that aren\'t too big outside the TF community than they are with the general public.

If they do go down this path (I SINCERELY HOPE THEY DO), then characters or storylines that deserve their own movies are:

Optimus Prime: Yes the big O himself deserves a solo movie or a film series centering around his story, maybe his origins, what he was doing in space before arriving to Earth while he was searching for the Allspark, or how he is leading the reconstruction of cybertron after the events of The Last Knight, or even while he his on Earth learning the customs and ways of humans (although that might be a recycle of the Bumblebee movie). Optimus is a character all his own and deserves his own series because of the impact he has on the majority of every Transformers continuity, as well as enertainment media as a whole. It would be nice to see Optimus have his own series of films while being apart of the main film series (kind of like the avengers where each member appears in either one another\'s movies). The transformers universe is big, so there\'s alot to work with and dozens of fictional worlds he can appear on that are famous or prominent in the transformers franchise.

Nitro Zeus and Mohawk: I\'d love to see these two as a duo in a buddy-action comedy type of film where they are on the run from TRF and just causing utter chaos and talking trash the whole time, where Mohawk is the brains and the main trash talker while Nitro is the hype man/instigator and muscle.

Drift: Drift is a character with great potential for his own storyline. In IDW, his origin story is both a deep path of enlightenment and an action packed story about reevaluating oneself and what you stand for. With a film franchise, that story and be redone for the big screen, either sticking to the original story with him escaping to a pacifist world of autobot scholars and monks where he meets the Circle of Light, or arriving on Earth and learning and experiencing the same or similar situation. In the comic, Lockdown is also a big part of Drift\'s origins, and one of his earliest enemies so that could come into play in a films series as well. There could also be a storyline where he and Crosshairs meet and they arrive on Earth together, having a similar dynamic of Samurai Jack and the Scotsman.

Lockdown: Lockdown\'s film could be a solo anothology film that tells of how he became a bounty hunter and deserted the decepticon cause and how he was hunting transformers on earth during the days of Cemetary Wind. It could be like in Man of Steel that showed scenes of Superman\'s childhood while telling the main storyline in tangent to one another.

NEST: Having a NEST spin off film has been thrown around for a long time, and in my opinion, would definately work. It would help build the relationship between the members of NEST and the Autobots that worked beside them. It could also bring back characters that we didn\'t we get to see much of and develop them in a much fairer sense such as Ratchet, Sideswipe, Dino/ Mirage, the Arcee sisters, the Wreckers, and Jolt, as well as team members who coud\'ve possibly died before or weren\'t present in DOTM or ROTF such as Air Raid, Break Away, Springer, Longarm, Wreckage, etc.

Sir Edmund and Cogman: Another idea floating about is a spin off centering around Sir Edmund Burton and his faithful Headmaster manservant, Cogman. A film or film series about these two would be absolutely fantastic. The chemistry these characters shared on TLK was great, and with a film series, their history could be explored as well. Storylines of their films could revolve around the two hunting down Cybertronian artifacts or constructs on Earth, or investigating Transformers related issues under the government's nose, or even be involved in Transformers related cover ups. The films would of course feature a younger Sir Edmund working alongside Cogman and building their relationship overtime as good friends while still being at each other's throats and arguing with one another onscreen.

Izabella, Canopy, and Sqweeks: I know this one is skeptical but here me out. It would be a good way to make up Izabella not doing much in the film other than introduce and support Sqweeks. However, it would be a nice touch or a good anthology idea to see how she met Canopy and Sqweeks and how they had to survive in the ruins of Chicago against TRF (or Cemetary Wind depending on when it takes place), and any decepticons hiding out there, where they all learn to work together in the end.

Starscream: Starscream definately deserves his own movie. The sly seeker commander does has been known to be off on his own adventures and/or operating on his own agenda while serving under Megatron or leading the decepticons while Megatron is away or dead. There is so much potential in making a movie with Starscream he parallels Bumblebee in potential. A good idea would be adapting the comic series \"Reign of Starscream\", which is canon to the films and told the story of Starscream becoming leader in the wake of the first Transformers film after Megatron\'s death in Mission City. It\'s such an action packed and interesting story that developed Starscream as a character and it was filled with other fan favorite characters that hadn\'t (or haven\'t) hit the big screen yet.

The Lost Light: A film series about the Lost Light and its crew would be a good way to bring the IDW comics into the spotlight for those who don\'t read the comics or aren\'t in the Transformers fandom, as well as bring their storylines to the forefront as well. It could have a similar style to Guardians of the Galaxy, with a crew of well known autobots along with some newcomers exploring space searching for other autobot survivors of the Great War (instead of the Knights of Cybertron in the comics). If I were to choose a crew, I would go with Hot Rod as captain, along with Drift, Crosshairs, and Wheelie as part of the known bots while bringing in new crew members that haven\'t been introduced in the films already, my personal picks being Ultra Magnus, Chromedome, Rewind, and/or Nautica.

The Creation of The Transformers and The Original Primes: The creation of the transformers is a favored story told throughout the various continuities. It would be nice for the films to establish a definitive creation story for transformers race as well as delve into the lore of transformers further, such as their relationship with the the Chaos Bringer himself Unicron, the establishment and expansion of cybertronian society, and of course the original transformers and their leaders, the Primes. This is another deep subject of lore within the Transformers franchise which could bring in a spiritual factor to the films that haven\'t been seen in the films yet, and establishing the truly large and important role the Primes have had on Cybertronian society and history, as well as tell the story of significant primes both seen on screen or not seen on screen (Optimus, Sentinel, Vector, Alpha Trion, the Fallen, and Prima).

The Dinobots: The dinobots were a really long awaited team brought to the big screen but haven\'t got as much screen as most of the main bots. However, in what screen time they get, they the Dinobots have proven to be a force to be reckoned with, either alone or all together. It would be a awesome if the dinobots had their own film establishing the close relationship the team has like in their other incarnations, s well as establish their own individual personalities, with Grimlock being the gruff and strong yet arrogant or and slightly funny leader, Slug being the fighter/berserker and Grimlock\'s right hand bot, Scorn being the brains and Grimlock\'s opposition/skeptic (with a small joke regarding the Jurassic Park rivarly between Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus), and Strafe being the voice of reason and team scout. It would be an interesting and even fun dynamic with the big lugs roaming around the universe with Grimlock doing his best (or what he believes is best) for his team as they go on a journey leaving a trail of destruction wherever they go, while being slightly oblivious to what they do. It could be kind of film or series resembling the Penguins of Madagascar, with the dinobots having similar roles; Grimlock: Skipper, Scorn: Kowalski, Slug: Rico, and Strafe: Private.

Those are just my ideas for any spin offs for the film series though, I really hope that Hasbro and Paramount go for at least one of those.

I would realy like to see the spin offs for individual characters to have their own movies. It\'s an interesting dynamic that even the transformers cartoons are barely experimenting with. It would be a good way to develop the transformers better and build publicity and popularity to characters that aren\'t too big outside the TF community than they are with the general public.

If they do go down this path (I SINCERELY HOPE THEY DO), then characters or storylines that deserve their own movies are:

Optimus Prime: Yes the big O himself deserves a solo movie or a film series centering around his story, maybe his origins, what he was doing in space before arriving to Earth while he was searching for the Allspark, or how he is leading the reconstruction of cybertron after the events of The Last Knight, or even while he his on Earth learning the customs and ways of humans (although that might be a recycle of the Bumblebee movie). Optimus is a character all his own and deserves his own series because of the impact he has on the majority of every Transformers continuity, as well as enertainment media as a whole. It would be nice to see Optimus have his own series of films while being apart of the main film series (kind of like the avengers where each member appears in either one another\'s movies). The transformers universe is big, so there\'s alot to work with and dozens of fictional worlds he can appear on that are famous or prominent in the transformers franchise.

Nitro Zeus and Mohawk: I\'d love to see these two as a duo in a buddy-action comedy type of film where they are on the run from TRF and just causing utter chaos and talking trash the whole time, where Mohawk is the brains and the main trash talker while Nitro is the hype man/instigator and muscle.

Drift: Drift is a character with great potential for his own storyline. In IDW, his origin story is both a deep path of enlightenment and an action packed story about reevaluating oneself and what you stand for. With a film franchise, that story and be redone for the big screen, either sticking to the original story with him escaping to a pacifist world of autobot scholars and monks where he meets the Circle of Light, or arriving on Earth and learning and experiencing the same or similar situation. In the comic, Lockdown is also a big part of Drift\'s origins, and one of his earliest enemies so that could come into play in a films series as well. There could also be a storyline where he and Crosshairs meet and they arrive on Earth together, having a similar dynamic of Samurai Jack and the Scotsman.

Lockdown: Lockdown\'s film could be a solo anothology film that tells of how he became a bounty hunter and deserted the decepticon cause and how he was hunting transformers on earth during the days of Cemetary Wind. It could be like in Man of Steel that showed scenes of Superman\'s childhood while telling the main storyline in tangent to one another.

NEST: Having a NEST spin off film has been thrown around for a long time, and in my opinion, would definately work. It would help build the relationship between the members of NEST and the Autobots that worked beside them. It could also bring back characters that we didn\'t we get to see much of and develop them in a much fairer sense such as Ratchet, Sideswipe, Dino/ Mirage, the Arcee sisters, the Wreckers, and Jolt, as well as team members who coud\'ve possibly died before or weren\'t present in DOTM or ROTF such as Air Raid, Break Away, Springer, Longarm, Wreckage, etc.

Sir Edmund and Cogman: Another idea floating about is a spin off centering around Sir Edmund Burton and his faithful Headmaster manservant, Cogman. A film or film series about these two would be absolutely fantastic. The chemistry these characters shared on TLK was great, and with a film series, their history could be explored as well. Storylines of their films could revolve around the two hunting down Cybertronian artifacts or constructs on Earth, or investigating Transformers related issues under the government's nose, or even be involved in Transformers related cover ups. The films would of course feature a younger Sir Edmund working alongside Cogman and building their relationship overtime as good friends while still being at each other's throats and arguing with one another onscreen.

Izabella, Canopy, and Sqweeks: I know this one is skeptical but here me out. It would be a good way to make up Izabella not doing much in the film other than introduce and support Sqweeks. However, it would be a nice touch or a good anthology idea to see how she met Canopy and Sqweeks and how they had to survive in the ruins of Chicago against TRF (or Cemetary Wind depending on when it takes place), and any decepticons hiding out there, where they all learn to work together in the end.

Starscream: Starscream definately deserves his own movie. The sly seeker commander does has been known to be off on his own adventures and/or operating on his own agenda while serving under Megatron or leading the decepticons while Megatron is away or dead. There is so much potential in making a movie with Starscream he parallels Bumblebee in potential. A good idea would be adapting the comic series \"Reign of Starscream\", which is canon to the films and told the story of Starscream becoming leader in the wake of the first Transformers film after Megatron\'s death in Mission City. It\'s such an action packed and interesting story that developed Starscream as a character and it was filled with other fan favorite characters that hadn\'t (or haven\'t) hit the big screen yet.

The Lost Light: A film series about the Lost Light and its crew would be a good way to bring the IDW comics into the spotlight for those who don\'t read the comics or aren\'t in the Transformers fandom, as well as bring their storylines to the forefront as well. It could have a similar style to Guardians of the Galaxy, with a crew of well known autobots along with some newcomers exploring space searching for other autobot survivors of the Great War (instead of the Knights of Cybertron in the comics). If I were to choose a crew, I would go with Hot Rod as captain, along with Drift, Crosshairs, and Wheelie as part of the known bots while bringing in new crew members that haven\'t been introduced in the films already, my personal picks being Ultra Magnus, Chromedome, Rewind, and/or Nautica.

The Creation of The Transformers and The Original Primes: The creation of the transformers is a favored story told throughout the various continuities. It would be nice for the films to establish a definitive creation story for transformers race as well as delve into the lore of transformers further, such as their relationship with the the Chaos Bringer himself Unicron, the establishment and expansion of cybertronian society, and of course the original transformers and their leaders, the Primes. This is another deep subject of lore within the Transformers franchise which could bring in a spiritual factor to the films that haven\'t been seen in the films yet, and establishing the truly large and important role the Primes have had on Cybertronian society and history, as well as tell the story of significant primes both seen on screen or not seen on screen (Optimus, Sentinel, Vector, Alpha Trion, the Fallen, and Prima).

The Dinobots: The dinobots were a really long awaited team brought to the big screen but haven\'t got as much screen as most of the main bots. However, in what screen time they get, they the Dinobots have proven to be a force to be reckoned with, either alone or all together. It would be a awesome if the dinobots had their own film establishing the close relationship the team has like in their other incarnations, s well as establish their own individual personalities, with Grimlock being the gruff and strong yet arrogant or and slightly funny leader, Slug being the fighter/berserker and Grimlock\'s right hand bot, Scorn being the brains and Grimlock\'s opposition/skeptic (with a small joke regarding the Jurassic Park rivarly between Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus), and Strafe being the voice of reason and team scout. It would be an interesting and even fun dynamic with the big lugs roaming around the universe with Grimlock doing his best (or what he believes is best) for his team as they go on a journey leaving a trail of destruction wherever they go, while being slightly oblivious to what they do. It could be kind of film or series resembling the Penguins of Madagascar, with the dinobots having similar roles; Grimlock: Skipper, Scorn: Kowalski, Slug: Rico, and Strafe: Private.

Those are just my ideas for any spin offs for the film series though, I really hope that Hasbro and Paramount go for at least one of those.

It's a bad representation because transformers aren't starring. It's a bad representation because characters aren't given any more than 3 lines unless you're optimus or megatron. It's a bad representation because characters are not distinguishable. It's a bad representation because the cgi sucks ass. People won't believe a duck isn't a duck. Hasbro and paramount are wasting money

I think that's why it was so easy for me to start passing on the movies. There really wasn't really anything to latch onto any of the characters so if you don't connect to the characters why care about what happens to them.

Most of the time it felt like you'd know more about a character from reading the back of the toy packaging than from watching the movie. Most Decepticons I only know as that dead robot. Even with the Autobots it feels like the extent of my knowledge is Ironhide liked guns but didn't sound like John Goodman, Hound liked guns and sounded like John Goodman.

Special effects wise. Yeah, of course. Story wise? Animated actually had a storyline planned from the beginning. Bay and the movie writers post-TF1 fully admit they just think up cool action sequences they want to do and then come up with some MacGuffin based plot later to tie the scenes together. The movies WISH it was Animated when it comes to plot.

I like Animated too, but it doesn't even almost hold a candle to the skill and effort that is put into the movies.

Special effects wise. Yeah, of course. Story wise? Animated actually had a storyline planned from the beginning. Bay and the movie writers post-TF1 fully admit they just think up cool action sequences they want to do and then come up with some MacGuffin based plot later to tie the scenes together. The movies WISH it was Animated when it comes to plot.

That's your opinion, and that's good. It's what makes the fandom very diverse. We should respect each other's decisions, and not force it down upon people who disagree with you. You can diss it all you want by yourself, but you don't have to accuse anyone of having poor taste or anything. You don't even have to call them "uneducated" or "uncultured".

That's your opinion, and that's good. It's what makes the fandom very diverse. We should respect each other's decisions, and not force it down upon people who disagree with you. You can diss it all you want by yourself, but you don't have to accuse anyone of having poor taste or anything. You don't even have to call them "uneducated" or "uncultured".